Where did you get that banana?

The bananas are carried along the cable on the top of the walkway.

This is why it is an herb and not a tree.

The distribution of bananas is a great example of how connected our world really is.  In the United States, I grew up eating fresh fruits year round, yet I never really knew how it was possible. I knew they had to come from somewhere near the equator, but the rest of the process was mysterious. I wanted to know the procedure from tree to supermarket. As we arrived to the banana plantation, all I could see were banana herbs everywhere. Herbs, because one of the things we learned at the farm was that bananas do not actually grow on trees!  They are an herb. I finally saw the entire process first hand.  It was a great experience, but I'm not sure if I should continue eating them now.  Not for unsanitary reasons, it was actually quite clean. It is because of the mistreatment of employees.  I heard how one of the thousands of farms can make about 100,000 dollars in one week, yet the workers lived in the poorest conditions I have seen in Ecuador.  The thought of miles and miles of bananas being shipped halfway around the world also bothers me.  This has a huge environmental impact. They are an environmental disaster when the environmental damage of the shipments is combined with pesticides, fertilizers, and land clearing.  Just like any other crop grown in a monoculture, there are environmental consequences.  The only difference with this crop is that there are also people being mistreated along with the environment. Though it is amazing that we can get this delicious fruit in the U.S. any time, I'm not sure it is worth encouraging this kind of behavior from banana companies.  Bananas are an extremely globalized products, and it showed me just how powerful the demand of the United States is.  We demand to have bananas year round. If we want something, someone will find a way to deliver. That is a guarantee.